surgingchaos

Bill Weld has probably done a lot of stuff behind the scenes to get Gary and himself into the debates. In the rallies they've held recently Weld has talked about the numerous contingency plans to get into the debates without needing the 15%:

• lowering the threshold to 10% for the first debate (this is something the CPD actually recommended on their own)

• 15% in state polls, not national polls (Johnson is getting above 15% in states like Colorado and Utah)

• the public lashes out at the exclusion (which Weld brought up in his response)

• The CPD's tax-exempt status is revoked for being bipartisan instead of non-partisan

I would not be surprised to see Utah and New Mexico turn gold on election night.

I agree. It hasn't been done since 1968, and it's not a coincidence that came with a massive political realignment in the US.

Part of me believes that the last thing the GOP wants to see this election cycle is for Utah to turn gold. I'm sure they're sweating over states like Georgia/Arizona in danger of being flipped by Hillary as well as the other traditional swing states but it's something they can probably stomach in the end.

But if the GOP loses their safest state to Johnson, that is a DEFCON 1 situation right there. Johnson winning Utah would immediately shift the narrative from, "How does the GOP rebound in 2020?" to "Is the GOP in danger of being replaced by the LP?"

Governor Johnson, my question to you has to do with an issue that is more at the state and local level than at the federal level. Right now there are many states experiencing major financial problems due to extremely generous public pensions. These benefits have become unsustainable as the money to fund the pension programs evaporated when the housing bubble burst. In my home state of Oregon for example, PERS (the major public-sector retirement system in the state) has been the biggest issue in the state legislature. It threatens to consume more and more tax revenue as the liabilities pile up.

How would you address these public pension programs that are strangling the states? As a former governor, I would think you might have a way of dealing with this problem. My biggest worry is that a state like California becomes completely insolvent and all the other states have to bail it out just like what happened with Greece.

The party bosses and people who work within the machinery of the parties do care. Those are the people who value party over people and ideas.